"What—, large-scale teleportation magic! But this is great—I've got some good experimental material here. One person alone should be enough to accumulate all the energy I need!"
"You think I'll just stand here and let you do this?"
"Fool. This great hall has a magic formation built right into it. Cocooning a large group takes time, but with just one person, it can activate instantly. You thought you were saving them, but you've only tightened the noose on your own neck!"
"Oh, is that so?"
Well, I already knew that.
I left it there on purpose, after all.
Then shall we have a practice round?
"[Reverse]— invert your state of not being cocooned!"
Sure enough, massive amounts of white thread burst from the ground, and in the blink of an eye they laced around the Obsidian Sorcerers' bodies, cocooning everything except their faces.
Since I had inverted the state of not being cocooned, these guys were now in a state of being cocooned.
About eight of them were left standing there in that ridiculous state with only their heads poking out.
For the record, cocooning wouldn't even be possible without the magic formation built into this great hall—which is exactly why I'd left it intact.
"You haven't been feeding any magic power into the formation—so how did you activate it?! Release us!"
The one who appeared to be the leader of the Obsidian Sorcerers sputtered.
Perhaps because the rate of cocooning varied from person to person, the leader was still the most energetic.
The other members were rapidly losing the light from their eyes.
"That won't work. Actually, why don't you tell me what you were planning to do with this cocooning formation?"
"You think I'd just tell you?"
"Slave Choker."
A black, spiked collar materialized around the leader's neck on top of his white cocoon.
"There's a small room beyond this great hall. Inside it is all the energy I've collected so far. I'll use it so His Majesty the True King can be resurrected as many times as necessary! It'll cost the lives of a hundred thousand people, though."
So it takes that much energy.
"His Majesty the True King grew far too powerful. That means an enormous amount of energy is needed even for the unlikely event of his resurrection. So I had large numbers of citizens and slaves build the True King's Shrine, and those who were no longer useful were sacrificed in the end. Don't you think that's extremely efficient?"
If you gloss over the fact that it's completely impossible, sure.
"Help... help... save me... ah..."
Eventually, one of the Obsidian Sorcerers was completely enveloped—even his face disappeared—and the white cocoon melted into a sludgy puddle on the floor.
Ugh... gross.
"No... no..."
The other sorcerers watched the first victim vanish before their eyes, their faces darkening with despair as they struggled to slow the rate of assimilation.
I could've just sat back and waited for all of them to melt into goo at their own pace, but that would've been tedious, so—[Space-Time Magic]"Fast Clock"!
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick...
I forcibly accelerated the flow of time for everyone remaining, and in an instant they all dissolved into sludge along with their white cocoons and vanished.
Ah, since I fast-forwarded their time, I didn't get to hear their death throes.
Oh well.
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Skills: [Reverse] [Divine Eye] [Sword God] [Fist God] [Spear God] [Scorching Magic] [Freezing Magic] [Clear Storm Magic] [Rock Iron Magic] [Sacred Magic] [Dark Magic] [Space-Time Magic] [Thunder God Sword] [Phantom Thief Gentleman] [Ninja Master] [Seeker of Truth] [Berserk] [Vayu Sprint] [Pain Dulling] [Complete Status Abnormality Resistance] [Dark Spirit Guardian] [Super Intuition] [Heaven's Gate] [Abyssal Contractor] [Magic Hand] [Treasure Search] [Temptation] [Agitation] [Telemesmerism] [Eloquence] [Fortune Boost] [10x Growth Speed] [Growth Limit Breakthrough]
Rank: Orichalcum